DOT authorized Swissair, Austrian and Delta yesterday to operate joint code-share service between Washington, Geneva and Vienna. Considering potential benefits for U.S. carriers, passengers and shippers, the department concluded that the proposal "represents a major improvement in U.S.-Switzerland and U.S.-Austria services." DOT also weighed the deal in terms of bilateral agreements and reciprocity. Yesterday's action was DOT's second major code-share program approval in a week, both involving Delta.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has awarded Unisys a $2.2 million contract to provide the airline with information management services and solutions for its freight shipment operations, Unisys said yesterday. Unisys will provide business process redesign, systems integration and human factors consulting services to implement an open client/service solution comprising Unisys personal computers and graphical user interface software, SCO UNIX servers and Telxon bar-coding hardware.
Midway Airlines, which operates a fleet made up entirely of Fokker 100 jets, plans to take on a second aircraft type in June and is considering the MD-80 or A320. It will take delivery of five aircraft in June, and additional aircraft each month thereafter. Midway's plan to operate all of its flights from Raleigh/Durham by June 15 will require moving all aircraft to the city, resulting in termination of service to Philadelphia, Dallas, Allentown and Denver by March 2. It will resume service to Philadelphia, later from Raleigh/Durham.
America West will increase operations at Orange County's John Wayne Airport as Southwest drops departures because of capacity cuts imposed by the airport. Southwest said it must reduce its schedule April 1 from 21 daily departures to 14 because of a seat allocation designed to keep the airport under its passenger cap of 8.4 million per year. The carrier will eliminate four daily flights to Phoenix and two to Salt Lake City, and it will cut flights to San Jose by one per day, for a total of seven.
Cargo management company Airmax has entered into an interline agreement with Malysia Airlines to handle import and export cargo in international gateway airports and anywhere on the North American continent. Airmax will provide road feeder service, cargo drop stations and other cargo management in nine U.S. cities for cargo exported to Malaysia and other Asian markets served by Malaysian Airlines.
FW Xpress has opened an office and terminal in Greensboro, N.C., with 50,000 square feet of warehouse space available for assembly and distribution of inbound or outbound international air freight.
USAir made three internal appointments this week. James Boland, joining USAir from the Wachovia Corp., was named VP-information services and chief information officer. He also will head the Information Technology Council. Thomas Fink, currently assistant treasurer, will be recommended to the board of directors for appointment as treasurer of USAir and USAir Group, replacing Ann Grant, who has left the company. Jim Hultquist was named senior director-taxes, pensions and insurance. He has been with USAir since 1978, working mainly in the tax department.
World Airways has applied for emergency allocation of six frequencies between the U.S. and South Africa to fill the gap in service caused by the grounding of USAfrica's flight operations (DAILY, Feb. 8). Noting that it requested the service earlier, World is urging DOT to "move quickly to arrange a suitable replacement." World stresses that "unless the department acts, the question of U.S.
U.S. Major Carriers Share of Pacific Service Third Quarter 1994 Total Revenue Departures American 524 Delta 1,086 Northwest 6,108 United 5,370 Total 13,088 Average Number of Seats Per Departure American 244
South African Airways has changed the departure day of one of its two weekly Miami-Cape Town-Johannesburg flights to Thursday from Tuesday. The other flight still will leave on Sundays. SAA has cut the price of its special advance purchase ticket to $1,149 from $1,599 in a move to increase traffic during the slow winter/spring season. The fare, available until May 15, permits stays between 13 days and one month.
Flight Safety Foundation and the International Federation of Airworthiness have scheduled seminars Nov. 7-9 in Seattle on the issue of "managing safely." The two organizations issued a call for papers on airport area operations, management of aviation operations, maintenance, flight crew training, aviation safety management, safety surveillance and aviation technology. For more information, contact Robert Vandel at 703-522-8300 or fax 703-525-6047.
Emery Worldwide has been named the primary air freight carrier for North America for Northern Telecom. Emery also been named domestic air freight carrier of heavyweight cargo for Baxter International.
The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and key subcommittees introduced legislation (H.R.842) this week to take four transportation trust funds, including aviation, off the federal budget. The bill would exclude from the President's budget, the congressional budget and any statutory general budget limitation the receipts and disbursements of the highway, airport and airway, inland waterways and harbor maintenance trust funds.
USAir's traffic rose 12.7% last month over January 1993 on 8.9% more capacity, increasing its load factor 1.9 percentage points. The number of passengers increased 11.6%, and the length of the average trip grew 0.9% to 660.7 miles. "We were helped by relatively good weather this January compared to last year's horrendous weather," said Chairman Seth Schofield.
Alaska Airlines will discontinue its service to Magadan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok in the Russian Far East by April 4, saying it has been unable to reach mutually acceptable terms with its pilots over deviations from the current labor contract necessary to operate the service. Alaska's pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association said they resent "being cast in the role of a scapegoat," claiming Alaska made the decision to end the service because the routes did not show any potential for profit in the near future.
Airborne Express said it has established the "first electronic data linkage" between the U.S. and Canada, enabling customers to "dramatically improve the ease of shipping between the two points." Airborne said it set up the linkage for the Clackamas, Ore., office of ADP Dealer Services, a leading supplier of computer systems to auto, truck and equipment dealers in North America and Europe. Tim Kauppi, ADP's shipping manager, said the company's capacity to ship large volumes of packages has increased about 35% as a result.
U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., sentenced three persons and a company yesterday for "criminal sale of bogus, counterfeit and fraudulently documented parts" to airlines and the Defense Department. James Daniele, a parts broker who operated D&D Air Inc., was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined more than $250,000. He and D&D also were fined the $2 million to $3 million proceeds from selling inventory not subject to forfeiture.
FAA hints at a major shift in regulatory philosophy in its proposed airworthiness directive on Rolls-Royce-powered Boeing 747s (DAILY, Feb. 8).Long-term, repetitive inspections "may not be providing the degree of safety assurance necessary," the agency says. This, plus a better understanding of human-factors issues in inspections, leads FAA to put "less emphasis on inspections and more emphasis on design improvements."
ValuJet yesterday posted its fourth consecutive quarterly profit and its president, Lewis Jordan, confidently predicted his company will run its string to five straight with its first quarter 1995 results. "We are expecting to be profitable in the first quarter," Jordan told reporters. "We've been profitable in every quarter" since launching flight operations on Oct. 26, 1993, he said. For the fourth quarter, ValuJet reported net earnings of $6.95 million, or 49 cents per share, and an operating profit of $11.5 million.
The American Freight Association's membership will soon include airports, association President Steve Alterman said yesterday. Eventually to include airports all over the world, AFA will aim at placing U.S. airports that have cargo hubs in a new member category, Alterman said. He added that the American Association of Airport Executives has expressed an interest in cooperating by encouraging its members to participate.
Pilot Air Freight has become a member and Africa Airways an associate member of Air Cargo Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Scheduled Airlines. Membership now stands at 65.
Joanne Young has joined Baker&Hostetler as a partner and will head its international aviation practices. The firm has offices in Washington, D.C., and seven other cities. Young represents aviation interests in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. She joins Richard Jones, who was deputy FAA administrator during the Reagan administration.
Swissair said yesterday it has "adjusted" its offer for a minority stake in Sabena but declined to confirm press reports from Europe that it has lowered its offer in the wake of the rejection of Sabena's plan to relocate Sabena pilots to Luxembourg (DAILY, Jan. 26).
Third annual International Cargo Symposium will be hosted May 10-11 by McCarran Airport, Las Vegas. Fourteen cargo experts will discuss current and future issues. For more information, call Cecilia Aguilar, 702-261- 5146.
